Go the Distance
by doggirl2772
Summary: Duck returns to his old orphanage a few days before Christmas to help decorate. Upon arriving, he finds himself to be a mini celebrity to the children there, and a role model in the eyes of one small young boy. One-shot.


**A/N:** Hey guys! Another one-shot present for ya! This time starring our favourite black feathered, ego-tistical, money-craving fowl, Danger Duck. But, (special christmas-y twist), we get to see Duck's soft side this time! 8D

Hope you have a great holiday!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own the Loonatics, the show, or anything WB related; however, I do own my own OCs (Candice, Miranda and Chase). If you would like to use these characters, feel free to contact me and I'll try to respond ASAP. I do not own the song, Go the Distance, either. That is by Michael Bolton. This is purely for the enjoyment of the many fans and fanfic writers of the show.

**_Lyrics_**

Normal

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Loonatics Unleashed

**One Shot Ep:**

**Go the Distance**

Written by: doggirl2772, Looney-Girl2772, or Toon-Luvin-Chicka.

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_**I have often dreamed,**_

_**Of a far off place.**_

_**Where a hero's welcome, **_

_**Would be waiting for me...**_

A puff of dirt rose as an orange and black motorcycle screeched to a stop. The owner reached up and pulled off his matching orange helmet to reveal a 24 year old black mallard. He kicked the stand down and grabbed his keys out of the ignition, keeping his eyes down slightly. He places the helmet on the handlebars and pockets the keys. The being finally looks up at an all-too-familiar building that looks as if it had seen better days. He then starts up the dirt driveway towards the two storey house. As his feet carried him ever closer, he took his time to look at his surroundings.

_**Where the crowds will cheer,**_

_**When they see my face.**_

_**And a voice keeps saying, **_

_**"This is where I'm meant to be..."**_

"So many memories," the anthro murmurs as he lets himself into the gated front yard. Toys were scattered everywhere and some block the path. Danger Duck simply stepped over or around them as he continued towards the house. Reaching the white front door, he took one last look at the messy lawn before knocking. Once, twice, three times. After several moments, and a bunch of kids yelling from somewhere within, a young woman with a wave of fiery, shoulder length red hair opens the door.

"Danny!" she exclaimed as the human rushed forward to hug her old friend, her emerald eyes gleaming happily.

Danger (or for the moment, Danny) hugged her back, laughing as he spoke, "Hey Miranda, glad to see you too!"

_**I'll be there someday,**_

_**I can go the distance.**_

_**I will find my way,**_

_**If I can be strong...**_

They let go of each other, briskly, before Miranda ushered him into the house. "Come on in, Danny. Don't wanna freeze out there!"

Danger followed her in and closed the door behind him, making sure he didn't step on anything in the process.

"So, what brings you to this neck of the woods?" she asked, leading him into the kitchen.

"Same as you," the fowl answered, taking a swipe at a batch of gingerbread cookies on a nearby counter.

Miranda snatched it back from him and placed it back on the plate. "Leave 'em will you? The kids just made 'em!"

He shrugged innocently. "So, did I miss anything?"

_**I know every mile,**_

_**Will be worth my while.**_

_**When I go the distance, **_

_**I'll be right where I, belong...**_

"No, you came just in time. We were just gunna decorate the tree actually," she answered, putting a couple of bowls into the sink.

"Cool, my favourite part!" Danger said as he then followed her out of the kitchen and into the huge living room. The room held two worn tan couches, a radio on a stand, and an already roaring stone fireplace. Several containers were stationed around a larger then life tree; few emerald green needles skattered at it's trunk.

"I thought sneaking a peek at your presents was your favourite part." Miranda giggled as they entered the formal-looking room.

"Oh come on Mire, that's when we were kids. If you haven't noticed, I have grown up since then!"

"Ya, ya, saving Acmetroplis from criminals, mutants, aliens, and other baddies sure have made you grown up," she replied rolling her eyes as she bent over and open one of the containers.

"I know, sometimes its jus... hey!" he exclaimed as he caught on to what she had said, making the woman laugh even harder.

_**Down a long, long road,**_

_**To embrace my fate.**_

_**Though the road may wander, **_

_**It will lead me to you...**_

"Uh... where is everybody? Usually it's not this quiet." Danger inquired a while later, looking through a box of decorations.

He blinked and his left brow rose in surprise. He re-emerged holding a small, sparkling orange orb; smiling as he watched the object twist on it's string. "I didn't know they kept this," he mumbled softly, watching as the childishly drawn picture turned with the string. It was of a young black duck, himself in fact, and a young girl with red curly hair. He suddenly felt the feathers on the back of his neck rise; motioning that someone was behind him. Sure enough; "Why wouldn't they, Dan?" a soft, feminne voice whispered into his ear. "They always keep things that the kids make." Danger didn't need to see her face to know that Miranda's eyes were also fixed on the ball. He felt a hand on his shoulder and watched from the corner of his light blue eye as the red-head bent over the container, rumaged with the contents for a moment before pulling out a similar silver orb. "See?" Miranda smiled, showing it to him, "Heres mine!"

Danger chuckled as he traced over the perfect picture with a finger; even at a young age, his friend had showed amazing artistical talent.

"But back to your question, they're just finishing up a Christmas story with Candice. They'll come down soon." Miranda answered matter-of-factly as she put took away the object and placed the small silver ball on the tree.

As if on cue, sounds of tiny feet pounded on the floor upstairs and soon after, the owners piled into the room; laughing and talking loudly. Yet, everything went quiet as every eye landed on Danger.

Usually all the attention would make him happy and he would almost instantly talk about everything that he had accomplished as a Loonatic. But this time, it creeped him out a bit. He thought that people would get used to him being in normal places, he was a normal person after all. And he had come to this orphanarium every Christmas ever since he had been adopted. You think they'd sort of get used to seeing him around, but no. It was like this every year.

_**And a thousand years,**_

_**Would be worth the wait.**_

_**It would take a life time, **_

_**But somehow I'll see it through...**_

Danger smiled nervously at the group of kids that ranged from 5 years to 13. "Hey, guys," he greeted cheerfully, hoping that they'd quit staring at him like some sort of unhuman, unnatural thing.

Miranda noticed this awkward silence and cleared her throat. Suddenly everyone started talking at once.

"No way!"

"It's Danger Duck!"

"This is so unbelievable!"

"This is totally awesome!"

"A real Super-Hero!"

"C'mon everyone. Help us out with decorating!" Miranda exclaimed, holding out a string of carefully threaded popcorn.

At her words, the kids rushed forward and started pulling ornaments, popcorn-chains, tinsel, and candy canes out of boxes or out of bowls that Miranda had put out on the coffee table.

_**And I won't look back, **_

_**I can go the distance.**_

_**And I'll stay on track, **_

_**No I won't accept defeat...**_

Smiling in relief, Danger mouthed his thanks to Miranda who mouthed 'No prob.' back. As the minutes passed with chatter and laughter, the bare tree took shape and beauty. Danger turned to look as another person entered the room, this time an elderly woman.

She gave him a warm and generous smile; the same one that had helped and comforted many young people in her years of working at the orphanarium. He walked over to her, smiling all the way, and gave her a gentle hug. Despite her frail body, she accepted the embrace with equal enthusiasm.

"It's great to see you again, Daniel," she said happily.

_**It's an up-hill slope, **_

_**But I won't lose hope.**_

_**'Till I go the distance, **_

_**And my journey is complete...**_

"I wouldn't miss helping out here for anything, Candice." Danger muttered back, releasing her. She was smaller then he remembered, only a couple of inches taller then himself.

"As long as it does not interfere with your work, I'm glad to have you here," she told him as they walked further into the room and gazed upon the tree.

Danger chuckled before Miranda asked him to go grab some more decorations from upstairs. In a quick few bounds he reached the top of the stairs and was walking down the hallway when he heard something.

Curious, he walked towards the sound. When he was sure he had found it, he opened the door to find himself in a light blue room with two pairs of bunk beds. On one of the lower bunks was a young anthro duck, much like himself, lying on his stomach and crying into a pillow.

_**But to look beyond the glory is the hardest part...**_

_**For a hero's strength is measured, by his heart...**_

Dismayed by the boy's distress, Danger knocked on the door lightly.

"Go away!" the boy, who looked about six, sobbed even harder.

Surprised, Danger decided to answer him instead of walking away. "You okay, kid?" he asked.

The young duck gasped as he recognised the voice and turned his head to look up. "D-Danger Duck!" he exclaimed in a high whisper.

Danger smiled softly before asking if he could come in. The boy agreed quickly and sat up straight, wiping his eyes as Danger sat next to him.

"What's the matter?" the older male asked.

The boy looked away, ashamed that he'd been caught crying, before muttering, "You wouldn't understand..."

"Try me," Danger said.

The boy looked at him sharply, as if trying to decide if he should or not. Finally he sighed, "I get picked on, alright? Just 'cuz I'm different; I'm not human like the others. They say I'll never amount to anything, that's why I'm never picked to be adopted. That's why I was left here, because my parents didn't want a weirdo. I try to show them that I am someone, someone who has feelings and talents, but... I always get beaten up. I try to show them that I can do everything they can do, but... whenever I try, I always end up messing everything up."

Danger's heart went out towards the little kid; _'He has no idea...'_ he thought.

_**Like a shooting star, **_

_**I can go the distance.**_

_**I will search the world, **_

_**I will face its harms...**_

The little kid looked up at the older anthro suddenly, "I told you! You don't understand! Nobody does."

Danger chuckled lightly, "I understand more then you think, kid."

The child raised an eyebrow questionably.

"I felt the same way. Sometimes I still do. Always getting shoved aside, being thought of as nothing but a lesser person; a person with no thoughts, feelings or talents of any kind. Just someone who can do no right but all wrong."

"Yeah, that's it!" The younger duck nodded in agreement.

"And because of that, I started thinking lesser of myself. I started to only see my mistakes and never my accomplishments. And the things I did correctly, I always thought that it wasn't good enough. That _I_ wasn't good enough."

The kid just continued to stare up at the older duck beside him.

"That's when I realised, 'What's the point of disappointing myself?' In doing so, I was making the bullies' predictions about me come true. I knew that I was better than what I, and many others, made me look and seem like. And when I showed more confidence in myself and what I could do, I was taken more seriously. I began to show my true colors and, thanks to that and the meteor, I became a Loonatic, a person that helps others, has confidence in what you are able to do, and accepts that you can't be perfect. Of course it took a few years before I showed my true self to my fellow Loonatics, but now I'm respected and well off because of it." Danger pondered for a moment before continuing, "I guess what I'm trying to say is, don't let being bullied put you down and have confidence in yourself. You're not worthless and people will realize that before long."

_**I don't care how far, **_

_**I can go the distance.**_

_**'Till I find my hero's welcome, **_

_**Waiting in... Your arms...**_

The two sat in silence for awhile before the six year old turned to Danger once again. "Thanks Mr. Duck. I feel way better now."

Danger smiled. "Good. Now, you wanna help me carry some ornaments downstairs to the others?"

"Sure," he agreed "By the way, my name's Chase Danfell." He held out his hand.

"Nice to meet you Chase," Danger said, shaking the boy's hand, "My name's Daniel Duck."

-x-x-x-x-

With the help of Chase; Danger, Miranda, Candice and the other children stood back to gaze upon their handy-work. The tree glittered beautifully with its many lights, candy, popcorn strings, tinsel and other ornaments.

"Wow." Chase murmured as his dark blue eyes looked it up and down. Suddenly he noticed something missing. He reached up, since he was about as tall as Miranda's knee, and pulled on Danger's sleeve.

"Hey, Mr. Duck," he whispered, pointing as he did so, "There's no star on the top!"

Danger did a double take and realized that he was right. "One second," he said. Danger looked around inside the last box before pulling out a glittering gold star.

"Chase," he called, "do you wanna help me put the star on top?"

The little duck's face lit up. He walked over and was about to touch the star when someone exclaimed,

"No! Don't let him put it on! He'll just ruin it!"

At that statement, Chase's face fell and his eyes lowered to the floor.

Danger stared at the little duck sadly before being met with a blazing look of determination from the anthro.

"Yes sir!"

_**I will search the world, **_

_**I will face its harms.**_

_**'Till I find my hero's welcome,**_

_**Waiting in... Your arms...**_

The room went to a hush as Chase stood on Danger's shoulders, both hands holding the golden star.

"A little closer," Chase said as his little arms strained forward to reach the tree.

Danger took a small step closer, allowing Chase to grab onto the tip of the tree with one hand and place the star on top with the other.

Everyone cheered as Danger helped Chase down and stood back as the other kids came forward and patted him on the back. Chase smiled in pride and soaked the experience in as his eyes shone in happiness.

Danger stood back with Miranda and Candice and watched the boy, a proud smile on his face.

-x-x-x-x-

Later on, Danger was saying good-bye to everyone. He waved to the kids before hugging Candice and Miranda.

"Come back soon, alright?" Candice asked.

"Of course." Danger assured her, before turning his attention to Miranda.

"See ya soon, Danny." she said, hugging him tightly.

"See ya," Danger said before turning and walking down the path. He had almost reached the white picket-fence when he heard someone calling him. He turned around in time to see Chase running after him.

"I-I just wanted to say... good-bye," the boy gasped as he caught up to the older mallard.

Danger grinned to himself and bent down so he could be at Chase's level.

"Here," Chase smiled at him as he gave Danger a gingerbread cookie in the shape of a Christmas tree.

Danger took it graciously before almost being bowled over by the six year old as he gave him a hug.

"And thank you," Chase whispered.

Danger smiled warmly, feeling a new sense of hope and care for the youngster he held before hugging the child back. "No problem Chase," he muttered back happily as the first small snokeflakes of the season started to fall.

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**A/N:** Sorry if Danger was a bit OOC. I was trying to portray his kind, caring and considerate side. Besides, we all know that he's not a total ego-maniac, right? He just wants to be heard. But hopefully I got his feelings and other stuff down pat. I just wanted to write a Danger Duck fic for once. Luv ya guys! Oh, and please reveiw! *snugs you all*

**'Go the Distance' sung by Michael Bolton, property of Disney**

**Loonatics Unleashed and characters, property of Warner Bros.**

**Miranda, Candice and Chase property of me, doggirl2772.**


End file.
